Nothing More / Psycho Village

What could you be possibly doing on a cold and wet Thursday evening? Yes, you could simply go to Hamburg´s famous Reeperbahn – and rock out to a show at HeadCrash! My memories of my first venue visit are not exactly extensive, and thus I happily walked past it first. Only to then return like a beaten dog.

I was lucky enough to be able having a chat with NOTHING MORE singer Jonny on their tour, the challenges of songwriting and a few more topics – and by this I was also able to suck up a bit oft he backstage warmth before I went and joined the fans waiting in front oft he closed venue doors.
When these doors opened, you felt the relief: let´s get into the warmth! Jacket was taken off, the hoodie was about to go – but wait, no, let´s keep it on. It´s not exactly warm inside the venue before the show, but that was about to change rather soon!
The evening started off with support band PSYCHO VILLAGE – they have already been on the road with Nothing More for the full tour and knew how to make the audience happy with having obvious fun whilst playing. We, standing front row, just had a big disadvantage: we only heard some bass, a lot of drums and vocals as well as guitar were perceptible only when you had singer Daniel right in front of you.

The sound mix clearly was not the best, and that´s something what I find sad as it doesn´t matter whether it is „just“ a support band – they also deserve an amazing mix! Nevertheless, the show was fun and that not only because the band had no problem to jump right into the crowd and perform from right there, as singer Daniel proved.

And then it was over – well, part 1 of the evening at least. Because part 2 was still coming up and about to tear down the venue. Once NOTHING MORE entered the stage, the audience went nuts – the all relaxed mood was gone, space got less and it got tighter. You noticed that special feeling in the air, between the band and the audience.

You were rocking as if there was no tomorrow – you had no clue that the band had spent their nights in the van and were actually close to their limit. Old tracks such as „Christ Copyright“ were nicely mixed with tracks off the recent „The Stories That We Tell Ourselves“ album, and all oft he songs made the audience be all excited. Not only on basis of this show, but also on the album, it might be no surprise to anyone, that these guys are nominated for a Grammy.

You want to know what my highlight was when it comes to this show? Well, that´s a rhetoric question, at least for me. It´s the bass / drum solo, and it´ll always be something that stays on the mind and makes people talk about afterwards. Even though it´s been a long solo and maybe nothing for people being into vocal tracks, you saw the enthusiasm in all the faces in the crowd. But no matter how much energy was flowing, at times it´s also the quiet and slow moments, that the audience enjoys as it did with „Just say when“.

Overall summary – sweating, headbanging, singing along and totally exhausted after those 90 minutes. And incredibly happy. That might describe people´s state after the show most suitably. A show where you had to go along and that will stay in mind vividly – and clearly made you wish for yet another show right afterwards!